ManicTime

Ever wondered how much productive have you been each day? How many hours have you spent in front of computer each day?How much time you spent on each application? And the trend of usage?

Previously reviewed Rescue Time did a similar thing but then all the data was uploaded on their servers which was a concern.

Enter ManicTime. Collected data is not transmitted anywhere or shared with anyone. Only you have access to it, which means no privacy concerns. Having a local database also enables you to use ManicTime offline, without an Internet connection. The reporting features are also pretty good.

On my Windows 7 laptop, it takes about 290 MB of memory.

You can download this utility from here.

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Foxit PDF Preview Handler

For many of the people who are using Outlook as the means of communication, the auto preview of attachment is a boon. While the default preview handlers are restricted to MS-Office applications, images & text files, we are left wanting for quite a few other previewers especially zip & pdf.

Tim Heuer has come to the rescue by writing a preview handler for PDF’s using Foxit Reader, which is the best software for reading pdf files, called Foxit PDF Preview Handler.

It does exactly what is required and is very light weight. There is no official foxit support included for this add-on, but Tim will offer assistance in troubleshooting in case of any problems.

It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 build7000. You can download the software from here.

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Srinagar

Not able to post for some time as had gone to Srinagar for an official visit. It’s a beautiful place and is rightly considered as “Paradise on Earth”. The aerial view from the flight of the mountain ranges is absolutely breath taking. The mountains rise above the clouds and people have climbed at such peaks of these mountains is unimaginable but real.

We stayed at a hotel called Grand Mumtaz. While the hotel & the view is good, service is to be improved. The food in Srinagar is essentially the same as we get in rest of India (am talking of vegetarian cuisine here), but the method of preparation is very different and it tastes very good.

A must visit for everybody to experience the serenity & the beauty.

Srinagar Mountain View

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Add “Tag Clouds” & “Read More” to your blog

You would have noticed the new “tag clouds” feature on the blog recently. Since this is hosted on blogger, have been able to add that successfully using the steps given in

http://phy3blog.googlepages.com/Beta-Blogger-Label-Cloud.html

Thanks phydeaux3!

Another change is that have added the “post summary” function, which allows one to add a “read more” link and take him to the appropriate page. This helps in keeping the main page short and crisp. Use the below tutorial to add similar functionality to your blog

http://www.blogspottutorial.com/2007/12/make-post-summary-readmore-function.html

Thanks Kang!

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Mahatma Gandhiji’s top 5 teachings

“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. ”

-- Albert Einstein

Mahatma Gandhiji, India’s Father of the Nation, was a practitioner of non-violence and truth. He dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth. He was the first to apply the principles of non-violence in the political field on a huge scale. His life was a message — a message of peace over power, of finding ways to reconcile our differences, and of living in harmony with respect and love even for our enemy.

# 1: Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

# 2: What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?

# 3: There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no cause that I am prepared to kill for.

# 4: An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.

#5: We must become the change we want to see in the world.

Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:

• I shall not fear anyone on Earth.
• I shall fear only God.
• I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
• I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
• I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.

- Mahatma Gandhi

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Get alerts on new emails via SMS

GSN SMS Notifier is an application that alerts you about new e-mails via SMS, directly to your cell phone.
SMS delivery can be done via ICQ (for free) or Skype (Skype Credits required).
Currently supported e-mail types are Gmail and POP3.
GSN is FREEWARE.

GSN will need to be configured before it is used.

 

The program has to be running in the background to be able to check the email account regularly and send SMS messages out if new emails have arrived that are matching the rules.

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Want to test some software on your machine?

Have you come across an application but not sure whether it’s a malware or spyware? Do you want to test any software without messing up your machine? How about installing the software in a completely isolated environment on your machine and testing it out without making any changes to system files or registry?

Enter Sandboxie. It runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.

The red arrows indicate changes flowing from a running program into your computer. The box labeled Hard disk (no sandbox) shows changes by a program running normally. The box labeled Hard disk (with sandbox) shows changes by a program running under Sandboxie. The animation illustrates that Sandboxie is able to intercept the changes and isolate them within a sandbox, depicted as a yellow rectangle. It also illustrates that grouping the changes together makes it easy to delete all of them at once.

Benefits of the Isolated Sandbox

Secure Web Browsing: Running your Web browser under the protection of Sandboxie means that all malicious software downloaded by the browser is trapped in the sandbox and can be discarded trivially.
Enhanced Privacy: Browsing history, cookies, and cached temporary files collected while Web browsing stay in the sandbox and don't leak into Windows.
Secure E-mail: Viruses and other malicious software that might be hiding in your email can't break out of the sandbox and can't infect your real system.
Windows Stays Lean: Prevent wear-and-tear in Windows by installing software into an isolated sandbox.

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Private Torrent Sites

In the torrent world, there are two category of sites, public & private. While you might get most of what you want on the public websites such as Pirate Bay, Mininova , there are chances of you downloading a malware or virus or fake torrents uploaded by Anti-Piracy Organizations to catch you red-handed for downloading pirated materials.

There are also a lot of private torrent trackers that are more reliable and offers faster downloading speed due to the members seeding the torrent to try to get a good ratio. The chances of being caught by anti-piracy organization also lessen compared to public torrent trackers. However, these private torrents are not easy to get in. You either have an invitation where your friend invites you in or you just have to wait until they open up the registration to public.

BTRACS

BTRACS is an automatic information site which periodicaly checks closed community bittorrent trackers for being open for signup. This also displays the Alexa Rankings of the website as an additional information. BTRACS displays adult advertisements and hence classified as NSFW.

There is a total of 322 bittorrent trackers in the BTRACS database.
88 bittorrent trackers are open for signup.

TrackerChecker

Trackerchecker will also list the time it last checked each website. If you create an account at the site you can select specific sites to track which makes things a bit easier.

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Financial Advise from Warren Buffet

Masterpiece from Warren Buffet

“We begin this New Year with  dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism. Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations. Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health.

They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.

Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older. This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser. 

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Spending: If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.
Savings: Don't save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.
Hard work: All hard work brings profit; but mere talk leads only to poverty.
Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.
Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income.
Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender's slave.
Accounting: It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.
Auditing: Beware of little expenses; a small leak can sink a large ship.
Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet.
Investment: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

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I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy. I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health. Let us become wiser and lead a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful life..

......Warren Buffet”

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File Renaming Software

Have you ever faced the task of renaming multiple files? How have you achieved it? Renaming it one by one or searching for software which will help in doing this in one mouse click?

Have evaluated lots of tools which can do this, but Lupas Rename (535kb zipped package) is the best of them. It gives you lots of options on renaming, auto numbering with a preview facility etc.

Lupas Rename 2000

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New Year Resolutions

Am not really a fan of keeping NYR, as have always believed that whatever it is that needs to be changed or corrected or adopted, now is the best time to do instead of waiting till 1st Jan. But life has progressed very fast and have got disconnected with many habits now at this juncture. So thought why not go the resolutions way and see whether I can get back on track, but not like any normal NYR, which is bound to fail after a couple of weeks.

I don’t know whether science has proved this or not, but believe firmly that it takes 21 days to form a habit, after which it goes down the subconscious mind and becomes a routine.

Came across this "power of less" concept of keeping resolutions and have really liked it. Aim 1 resolution a month and keep track of it. By the end of month, if you have done it consistently, it would have become a routine. Next month, another resolution. You can register yourself in the forum and put up your resolutions and also track it daily.

My resolution for the month of Feb 2009: Chant the Holy Gayatri Mantra 28 times a day (used to do this for many years).

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